Blonde secret
by SwissEagle
Summary: Ino is being abused, but she doesn't want her friends to find out. How will she cope? More importantly, what will she do when Lee finds out? LeeIno friendship TEMPORARILY DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

Ni hao! This is yet another idea of mine. Rather AU. Flames are grudgingly accepted.

I don't own Naruto.

Ino lay curled up on the floor in her room. How long she had been lying there, she did not know. All she knew was her head was pounding, her jaw ached, and her back felt like a herd of deer had decided to tap-dance on it.

She spit out the foul taste of blood in her mouth. She didn't quite recall what had happened last night, but she knew it must have been essentially the same thing as the other nights.

She had done something to earn her father's disapproval.

It had been like this since she was about ten. That was when her mother developed a tumor on her brain, and now she couldn't talk, walk, or help with the household. The doctors had said she only had a few months.

Well, she had survived much longer, but that didn't mean things were easy. Ino had to pull her weight around the house, and her father didn't take all the change so well.

He had resorted to drinking to forget his problems. It hadn't been a major problem at first, but pretty soon he began noticing things he hadn't while he was sober. Ino made quite a few unacceptable mistakes.

So he took it upon himself to teach her just what she was doing wrong. Problem was, a lot of it was things Ino couldn't help, like not knowing how to do dishes properly and not being able to lift her mother from her bed to her wheelchair without accidently running her into something. It was a wonder she could lift her at all, honestly.

Ino got in more and more trouble as time went on and he father drank more. Often he would see her do something and punish her later that evening, when he was most drunk. Now was one of those times.

Ino had a mission today, so she knew she had to get up.

Struggling, she put her arms in front of her and pushed, getting herself painfully into a sitting position.

She was probably a mess. What would her teammates think? What if they found out?

She shook her head, feeling like she had loose, clanking parts in there. She had to stop and think. She had to get up and get to the bathroom.

She slowly got up and put one foot painfully in front of the other, making her agonizing way to the bathroom.

When she got there, she looked in the mirror. She was a frightful sight!

Her face was black and blue. She had a long scratch running from just under her left eye to just below her chin.

The rest of her body was not a pretty sight either. Black and blue and covered in scratches, just like her face.

This was going to take a lot of makeup and medicine.

She pulled bandages and an antiseptic cream down from the cabinet and set to work on her scratches. She couldn't really do anything for the bruises, other than cover them up, which she did shortly after finishing the bandages.

The scratch on her face she had to leave unbandaged so she could hide it beneath makeup.

Today was a colder day, so she could wear more covering clothes. She was extremely grateful she had packed her bag the day before. After binding her legs and arms for more protection, she slipped on a coat and grabbed her bag.

As eager as she was to leave the house, she knew she had to go and tell her father where she was going, or else he would be painfully cross when she got home.

She saw with relief he was still sleeping and left a note on the fridge instead.

And then she was out of there!


	2. Chapter 2

Well, since I got a review for this one, here is the next chapter!

Still don't own Naruto.

Ino had been able to work her legs through their painful stiffness on the way over. Now she was walking mostly normally.

There was here team, waiting at the gate, and... Wait, was that Lee?

What was he doing here?

"Hey Ino! What took you so long?" Chouji said cheerily.

Ino grinned back.

"You wouldn't get it, it's a girl thing. We like to look good."

Shikamaru muttered something that sounded like 'troublesome woman' and turned to Asuma.

"We're all here now. Can we go?"

When Asuma nodded, Lee exploded.

"Yosh! Let us go with the full power of youth!!"

He sped down the path, coating them all in dust and leaving them all far behind.

"T-that idiot! He ruined my hair and clothes! Doesn't he know some of us care about our appearance?!" Ino sputtered, trying to dust herself off.

Shikamaru sighed, but didn't say anything. He didn't want his head bitten off.

Asuma also sighed.

"Well, we'd better get going if we want to catch up with him."

And they took off, Ino still pouting about her messed up hair.

They caught up to Lee about a mile later, where he'd stopped because he realized they weren't behind him.

"I am sorry I left you behind! I will go more slowly next time!"

He was oblivious to the venomous look Ino gave him.

They went more slowly this time, and encountered no trouble.

As they were setting up camp for the night, Shikamaru essentially handed off his chores to Lee, who was more than happy to do them.

Ino prepared the food while Asuma and Lee set up the tents. Chouji scouted out the forest farther away from the camp.

Lee came bouncing over, declaring that the food smelled delicious and Ino was a good cook.

Chouji came back near the same time and agreed with Lee, mostly the food part though. Ino had gotten the food out of a can after all.

They ate around the campfire, Shikamaru turned around so he could be lookout.

Ino leaned over to take the teapot off the stand and bumped one of her worst injuries.

It took a lot of self control not to cry out, but the others couldn't help but notice the way she bit her lip and froze for a full minute.

"Are you okay, Ino?"

"Did you hurt yourself?"

"I am just fine." She said, enunciating each syllable.

She started to pour tea while her teammates looked on with concern. Usually she would explain an injury, like 'I hit my head on the mirror while I was washing my face' or 'We were in a battle, you know'.

But no one said anything.

Chouji took first watch as they finished eating, and everyone else went to bed.

Lee had the watch after that, and then it would be Ino's turn.

When it was Ino's turn Lee went over to rouse her.

He did this by shaking her, a habit he had picked up from Tenten.

Ino squeaked because, duh, it hurt, and she shoved poor Lee into the campfire.

"What is your problem?! Don't you know how to wake somebody without killing them?!"demanded Ino.

"I didn't shake you very hard..." Lee said a little meekly.

"Yes you did! You have the grace of a donkey!"

Lee looked offended. He certainly didn't deserve to be called a donkey.

"Well, it's not my fault you can't handle anything," he said annoyedly.

"Handle anything! I'll have you know I am one of the tougher kunoichis! I got hit with a kunai and I didn't scream!"

"That doesn't prove a lot. Tenten does that all the time."

"Well, she's weird!"

"She is not! Take that back!"

"I won't unless you apologize." Ino declared haughtily.

Lee frowned.

They remained in a stareoff for most of Ino's watch.

Then it was Asuma's turn, and fortunately he roused himself, because Lee and Ino had fallen asleep.

Next chapter: Is her secret discovered?


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

Here is chapter trois!

Still don't own Naruto.

The next morning came, and now they had set off again after a short argument about who spilled soup all over the left side of the tent.

Ino found she was quite sore, as if her injuries had worsened over night. She was very slow due to her aching body, and the others had probably noticed her unusual slowness by now.

She didn't like the way Shikamaru kept looking back at her quizzically. It made her worry the genius would figure it out. Chouji only glanced back with concern and slowed his pace a little. Even Lee noticed and slowed down, even though it was obviously killing him to have to go this slow.

She worried Asuma would figure it out. The man was a jounin after all.

Her thoughts were broken by a sudden "Hey Ino!" from the exuberantly green kid who had slowed down so he was running next to her. "What?" she answered, a little nervous about what he might ask.

Her worries were pushed aside when he said "Do you want a piggyback ride or something? Because it would be good training for me and you're really slow today!"

She frowned in a dangerous way Chouji and Shikamaru had learned to recognize. "What do you mean 'good training'?"

"The extra weight would make it that much harder for me to go faster than everyone else!" Lee explained, oblivious to the deepening frown on Ino's face.

"Extra weight?! I barely weigh anything!" the blonde screamed at him. Lee looked taken aback, holding up his hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry! I just meant it'd be more than I weigh...." He said, obviously trying to smooth things over.

"You think I weigh more than you?!" Ino was livid at the very idea. Lee panicked. "No! That's not what I was trying to say!"

"You jerk!" Ino shouted, "just leave me alone!"

She tried to dart faster ahead of him, but this was where things hit a snag. A tear on her leg reacted painfully and she cried out and fell down.

She was swarmed by Chouji, Asuma, and Lee. Shikamaru hung back a little, watching with curiousity.

"Ino, are you okay?" "I'm sorry that I pushed you to your limit! I will do 200 pushups, and if I can't do that-" "_munch_ You feeling okay, Ino? _munch"_

Ino pushed back her worried team. "I'm just fine!" she snapped, biting back tears.

She stood up, her teammates watching with concern. "You don't seem just fine," Lee pointed out. Lee was used to people who insisted they were fine when they clearly were not.

"Well, I am! Shut up, loser!" She took off at her previous speed, not looking back at any of them. Chouji and Shikamaru shrugged and started running again too. Asuma looked after Ino with concern, but shut up about it.

Lee did not understand it. How could they do nothing when it was clear something was wrong with their teammate?

The rest of the day while they ran was uncomfortably silent.

They arrived at their next campsite late in the evening. The sun bathed everything in a glow of orange as it set. The beauty was lost on Ino, who was busy struggling with a tent and cursing under her breath.

Lee came over. "Do you need any help, Ino?"

She just growled at him. "I don't need help!"

Lee watched as she turned her back to him and walked away, leaving the tent in its mess. He knew something was wrong, and he was going to make it up to her......

* * *

Sorry this took so long! Also sorry it's not that good!


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